Battery powered vehicles have been in use for a number of years. In particular, it is known to provide battery powered public service vehicles which during a period of duty are subject to interim recharging of the batteries between journeys at a bus station or depot. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,657 where a battery powered public service vehicle is provided with contact means for recharging of the batteries. The contact means, typically a pantograph, can be raised to contact an overhead power conductor and receive electric current to recharge the batteries. The power conductor is carried by fixed laterally extending arms attached to posts which are connected to an electrical distribution network. A proposal has been made that, in order to increase efficiency, such vehicles should be equipped with sodium/sulphur batteries.
Sodium/sulphur batteries, which have recently been introduced, as compared with conventional rechargeable batteries, provide longer energy storage for less weight, and therefore will be subject to less discharge in powering a public service vehicle such as a bus over a given journey. Coupled with the fact that sodium/sulphur batteries can be recharged at higher rates, shorter periods of recharging should be possible with vehicles equipped with such batteries. It should therefore be possible to effect interim recharging of the batteries on the public highway, using the timetabled intervals between journeys or sections of journey, and a primary object of this invention is to provide apparatus for this purpose.